


saving grace

by brandflakeeee



Series: wait for me [3]
Category: Hadestown - Mitchell
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-08 21:22:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18902896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brandflakeeee/pseuds/brandflakeeee
Summary: persephone is just trying to get her shit together. and then it caves in.





	saving grace

Winter goes on, and so does Hadestown. The dead are adjusting to new changes their King and Queen have brought upon them. Work isn’t nearly so unkind - there are shifts, time for breaks, and the workers are steadily learning to enjoy this new schedule as they can, as if they fear it might turn back into cruel, awful work all day and all night. Persephone doesn’t see it happening in the near future; she and her love have sworn to rebuild the Hadestown of their youth and if anything, she’s determined to prevent that damned wall from ever being rebuilt again. 

 

Her hole in the wall bar that isn’t so secret thrives still, and so she thrives. She serves her drinks, sings her songs, and offers glimpses of the above ground world as much as she can for the pitiful lot. They’re easier to smile now. Easier to relax. Slowly but surely, balance is being restored because she and the old man are finally on even ground again. 

 

Above the bar is an office for her, and it’s where Persephone is now. Hades is in his office in the factory and she hadn’t felt like working in the quiet of the house so she’s here. Listening to the music float up from downstairs. The dogs are piled neatly on top of each other near the fireplace, fast asleep. Some guard dogs they were. The goddess herself is perched at her desk, papers strewn about as she tries to catch up on the work she’s neglected for so long. She has the head for numbers and she excels at the minor details, like individual petals of a larger flower. She knows her duties, knows this city half depends on her getting her shit together. 

 

Her gaze snaps up from the ledger she’s inspecting at the soft knock on her door. The dogs leap up and immediately start barking, drowning out her call of ‘come in!’. She scowls. 

 

“Ησυχια!” They immediately halt at her order, though she can sense the tension they give at their eagerness for Persephone to open the door. Absolute terrors the three of them are; she can’t fathom why they flock to her like sheep when they were Hades’ to begin with. Shooing them back she cracks the door to peer at the hesitant face on the other side. 

 

“They said you wanted to see me?” Eurydice murmurs quietly, glancing past Persephone to the dogs. Persephone smiles softly, stepping aside.

 

“Yes, yes. Come in. Ignore the hounds, they won’t hurt you.”

 

Eurydice looks absolutely terrified as the three dogs immediately circle her, sniffing and testing while Persephone shuts the door. She settles when one of them lick her hand, and then it’s all over as they assault her with demands of scratches and kisses. Eurydice smiles and Persephone can’t help but notice how tired she looks. Poor thing. She’s still in her work overalls, a smudge of dirt on her cheek. 

 

“Do they have names?” Eurydice asks as she reaches out to pet them, satisfied they aren’t going to rip her to shreds. 

 

“Ενας, Δύο, and Τρία.”

 

“Do they mean something?” 

 

“One, Two, and Three. My husband isn’t exactly a literary genius when he names things.” Persephone moves to sit back behind her desk. “I had them bring some pomegranate wine up and something to eat if you’re hungry.” She nods toward the tray set at the edge of her desk. She’s been nursing her own glass of wine for the better part of an hour. A little drinking never hurt anyone; she ain’t got the idea to start losing herself to it’s vice again. Not when things are finally going right. 

 

Persephone tries to keep contact with Eurydice, when she can. There’s still a deep river of guilt that runs through her at Hades’ intentions, what grief he’d caused Orpheus and Eurydice. How hell bent he’d been on using Eurydice against her and in the end,  _ hadn’t _ . For all the fighting between her and her lover, they’re entirely faithful to each other. He knows they’d kill each other otherwise. Yet Eurydice had still been damned to this life because Orpheus had held that moment of doubt in her, and in himself. She could smack the shit out of that boy. They’d all ended up in the crossfire and the guilt Persephone has only grows when she considers Orpheus and Eurydice are the reason she and her old man are finally back together. 

 

“You holding up?” Persephone asks as Eurydice eats and drinks; the dead don’t strictly need it but it’s old habit and still enjoyable. 

 

“As always.” She replies in kind, slipping a bite of cheese down to the three hounds still hovering around her. “I haven’t thought of what to write yet.”

 

“It’ll come to ya. You got time. I ain’t due back upstairs for another while yet.” Persephone murmurs. For the first time in a very long time, she’s reluctant to leave; but the mortals have suffered enough and need an early spring. Winter wasn’t nearly as harsh this go around, so she hopes when she takes the train back up there are a lot more left standing than there are not. 

 

“I wish I could see him.”

 

“I know. Aside from slaughtering him where he stands, though, I don’t have that power. Even here.” Persephone has had this conversation with Eurydice before and it always ends the same. Orpheus will get down here in his own time. “But I’ll take your letters as long as I can. What the boss don’t know, boss won’t mind.”

 

“You two seem on . . . better terms.”

 

“You and your boy ain’t a marriage counselor by any means, but you reminded us what we’d lost. What we’d given up.” Persephone leans forward with her chin in her hands. Eurydice gives a sad smile. 

 

“At least someone’s happy.”

 

“Don’t play the pity, girl.” She warns. “I’m doing everything I can to make this less of a hell. The husband and I are getting along and the city is all the better for it. One day at a time.”

 

Eurydice falls quiet. Persephone knows it’s hard. When she leaves, she knows it’s only for six months. Eurydice don’t know when she’ll get to see her lover. 

 

“But I am happy. For you. You’ve been fighting for ages. The winters up there should get better. More people could survive. Won’t starve.”

 

“That’s what I’m hoping.” She replies quietly. Eurydice reminds Persephone so much of herself sometimes it’s scary. Young, soft, and fierce. She imagines if she had a child it’d be a girl like Eurydice or a boy like Orpheus. She inhales sharply at the painful way her heart twists in her chest, hiding it by taking a sip of her wine that’s long gone hot. 

 

Which she nearly ends up slopping down her front as her office door slams open. Another worker is there, a man, who looks wide-eyed and worried.

 

“Lady Persephone - the mine at the south gate - it’s collapsed. We can’t find the boss, he’s at one of the north factories with another crisis - there’s workers trapped and we can’t -.”

 

Persephone is already out the door before he can finish the last. 

 

Eurydice and the man follow quickly in her wake, as do the hounds. They look like a circus running down the street, but there are other workers who have already heard about the accident and are on their way, too. They part for Persephone though, their lady, their hope when all seems lost. She hasn’t responded to accidents in ages, having left them mostly up to Hades. Pretending she didn’t care - she does, fiercely so. The workers can’t be properly killed but she won’t see them suffering. Not to mention she knows Hades will be furious if the problem isn’t resolved so the mine can go back into production. 

 

The south end of the city trails away and gives way to the mines. That had been un-changable compared to the ease at which her husband had moved the factory and foundry to the far north. Several of the mines had been shut down, but the two major ones continued operations to supply coal and precious minerals for the foundry and then to the factory. The air here is thick with smoke and it doesn’t take Persephone long to force her way through to the collapsed tunnel given the shades gathered around it. They part for her easily enough.

 

“Keep trying to reach the King.” She says, peering into the dark, yawning mouth of the cavern. She reaches out to grab a lantern from another’s hand, the dim light bouncing off the walls as she strides forward. “No one else enters this mine so it doesn’t come down on my head. Where are the foremen?”

 

Two older men stride forward, unafraid.

 

“Each of you lead teams into the other mine, see if there’s a branch that might be used to connect to this line to the other and we can get the workers out that way. I’ll go this way to see how bad the damage is and if it can be removed.” It’s easy for someone like Persephone to give orders and be obeyed; already the two foremen are grabbing some trusted workers and headed down the hill to the other main cavern. Eurydice steps forward.

 

“You’re not going in there are you? You - what if it collapses? Shouldn’t it be one of us instead? We’re . . . expendable.”

 

“Call yourself expendable again, girl, and I’ll slap you.” Persephone tilts her head. “But I can tell you’re not going to listen if I say no.”

 

“Not really.”

 

“Come on, then.”

 

Persephone holds the lantern aloft as she and Eurydice head into the mine. The beginning of it is held up with thick beams that keep the rocks from collapsing. The walls are bare, the veins already mined out. The lantern casts the pick-axe marks in sharp relief, dotting the wall unnaturally. It isn’t the first time she’d been in these mines; Hades had brought her into them when he’d first opened them, showing her the glittering gemstones and minerals that lie within. Nothing glitters now, not this close to the entrance. 

 

They walk in silence, she and Eurydice. The girl keeps step with the goddess and vaguely Persephone wonders if she fears being left behind again if she dares to lag behind. She doesn’t address it, doesn’t ask, and presses forward. The light of the entrance fades until the only light is the flickering lantern in her hand, illuminating damp walls and well worn paths on the ground. She’s listening, trying to hear for any sign of the workers. The earth is disturbed, she can feel it. It practically shivers beneath her feet. Pointing her down the right path when the mine begins to branch out into smaller tunnels. The air grows thicker, clouded and the ground slopes down the further on they go. Persephone doesn’t speak, and neither does Eurydice. 

 

This is true hell, Persephone thinks. This far below. The true underworld. Hadestown is nothing compared to it. Her skin prickles and it sets her stomach into a fit of unease, being this far down. She’s come this far though, she ain’t turning back yet. 

 

The first few rocks are scattered on the ground when she turns a sharp left into a relatively new branch tunnel. She can see silver veins peeking out from the walls, untapped just yet. They dead in straight into a massive pile of stones and rubble that have completely closed off the rest of the tunnel. Persephone swears quietly. 

 

“Can you hear us?” Eurydice calls out loudly beside her and Persephone nearly slaps a hand over her mouth.

 

“Are you tryin’ to bring the whole thing down on us as well?” She snaps, and Eurydice turns pink in the dim lighting; embarrassed and eyes wide with worry. Persephone thrusts the lantern in her hands. “Right. Earth is more Ma’s specialty, but we’ll give it a go.”

 

As a general rule, Persephone doesn’t use her godly gifts very often in the underworld. It takes more strength to use them here because she’s so far separated from the sun and any normal form of life. On the surface she barely has to think and there are bushels of flowers bloomed at her fingertips. Here it takes concentration and effort and gods she is getting  _ too old _ for this. She steps forward cautiously, stepping around what rocks she can to get as close to the heart of the rubble as she can. Her skin hums with energy, warm and ready. It’s difficult to call upon anything green and  _ alive _ this far down. 

 

Her fingers reach out to touch the surface rocks of the pile. There’s no way in hell she or Eurydice could move them with the size of some of them. If she can manage to weave vines through the cracks and gaps in the rocks to loosen them, to lift them - they can get the workers out and they can remove the blockage once the cavern isn’t unstable. It’s a haphazard plan at best, but the workers need freed and she’s here now so she’s not turning back without at least trying. She’s not heartless. The souls trapped beyond are supposed to be under her protection. 

 

Her eyes close as she pictures the vines, thick and fat coiling through the cracks. She immediately feels the drain of it but doesn’t let up.  _ Grow. Grow. _

 

_ Grow, damn it! _

 

The rocks shift beneath her fingers and her eyes snap open. There are vines, not nearly as large as she pictured, but there are vines. Weak little things that sweep through - or try to, but the further away from her they get the more they struggle. Persephone puts all her effort into forcing them through, seeking out the shades on the other side. 

 

Again they shift, the rocks, and it’s louder. The ground beneath her trembles. The pathetic vines are already browning at the edges, fading fast - but they’ve disturbed the rock pile and the surrounding structure. The earth rumbles and shifts and she jerks back her strength from trying to free the shades so quickly the vines wither and die into ash almost instantly. She half stumbles, half falls into Eurydice who drops the lamp as Persephone grabs hold of her small frame. 

 

“Close your eyes and don’t breathe.” Persephone hisses somewhere near Eurydice’s ear as she drags the girl into her embrace, curling her frame across hers. It’s instinctive, protective nature that has her moving swiftly to keep Eurydice from bearing the brunt of the collapse. The tunnel loses its battle of stability in only seconds and falls down around them in a furious rain of rocks and dust. 

 

Pain strikes Persephone as she shields Eurydice but she endures for as long as she can. 

 

Which, in truth, isn’t very long at all. 

 

\-----

 

_ An eye for an eye. _

 

_ A life for a life. _

 

_ Now it’s yours under the knife. _

 

The voices only add to the sheer  _ pain _ that makes her skull throb from the second she opens her eyes. The air is thick with dust and makes her cough, which only adds to the pain. Persephone feels like she’s been hit by the gods damned train. That her brother has quite literally run her over, backed up, and run her down again. Maybe three times the way she feels like she’s ripping apart at the seams. 

 

Everything is dark even when her eyes adjust. She can’t see an inch in front of her own face. There’s a heavy weight both on her and beneath her. Judging by the thing squirming beneath her, it’s Eurydice. Persephone tries to shift off the girl and is met only with more stones against her ribs. She groans and swears and makes any other noise that might help - it doesn’t.

 

Eurydice coughs heavily just to her left, cold fingers reaching out blindly.

 

“Persephone.” She manages with a wheeze. “You . . . you shouldn’t have done that . . . .”

 

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” She hisses, fumbling in the dark to shove stones off herself. Everything hurts. She’s bleeding, judging by the way her dress clings to her with a disgusting dampness. She can’t tell where. Everything is spinning, even in the pitch black. 

 

If she dies, she’s going to be  _ pissed _ . Probably moreso than her husband. 

 

Her fingers, sticky with blood, touch the uneven ground on which she’s sprawled. She can still hear Eurydice shuffling, trying to make heads or tails of which way the damn exit is. Her bloodied hand smears across the tunnel floor, reaching into the earth.

 

_ Lover. I messed up. I messed up real big. _

 

Killing a god is always difficult, near impossible. Age won’t kill them, but apparently cavern collapses will. 

 

“Are you okay?” Eurydice asks and Persephone wants to laugh. All that comes out is a vague huff of a wheeze.

 

“Just  _ great _ .”

 

The Fates are still singing in the back of her mind; she can’t tell if it’s real or not with the way her ears are ringing. Everything feels vaguely under water. Persephone has had pain before and tries to push through. Shoving herself up and into a sitting position - her entire body cries out and she grits her teeth to keep from alarming the girl. She has to lean back against some of the rocks to keep herself upright.

 

“Not one of my better ideas. Trying to move this shit.”

 

“You tried.” Eurydice’s voice sounds in the darkness, soft. “You tried and that matters. You protected me even if I didn’t need it.”

 

“We ain’t never had a shade die down here. Wasn’t gonna start with you.” Persephone grinds between clenched teeth. “Those workers on the other side - you can’t hear them, can you?”

 

“No. But . . . I don’t think the pile shifted this way or that. Just the ceiling.”

 

“You sure you didn’t hit your head? You ain’t making sense.”

 

_ Persephone _ .

 

It’s such a fierce shout of her name that it almost hurts, like a scream across her mind. It isn’t the Fates, but her husband. He’s close. Near the mine, at the least. She doesn’t have the strength to reach out. He’ll sort it out. She trusts him. She’s just focused on not dying in a dark hole in the ground. 

 

“Gods, this place’ll be the death of me yet.” She grumbles, inhaling sharply when trying to move again makes her dizzy with pain. Eurydice hears, and shuffles close until she’s nearly nose to nose with Persephone.

 

“You have to stay awake.” The girl demands sharply, fingers blind in the darkness reaching out to Persephone. “You can’t go to sleep. We’re going to get out of here.”

 

“I’m old and I’m allowed a nap.”

 

“No.” Eurydice says sharply.

 

“Since when are you a doctor?”

 

“I’m not. But I know you’re not supposed to sleep when you’ve been hurt in the head.”

 

Persephone leans further back against the rubble she’s on, rough stone scraping against the skin of her face. Yeah, definitely a horrible idea to go barging into mines. She hadn’t been thinking, really. Instincts. Hades is gonna kill her if the damn cave doesn’t kill her first. She sucks in a deep breath and stifles a cough that rises in the back of her throat. 

 

_ “Just a rest.” _

 

_ “Close your eyes.” _

 

_ “It’ll be over soon enough.” _

 

“Go to hell.” She mumbles aloud to the singing trio that seems to echo off the stone. Eurydice doesn’t seem to hear. Good. But Persephone can’t help how heavy her eyelids feel, how the aching in her head dulls when she closes them. She can’t do anything in her current position; might at well nap while they wait for rescue.

 

“Persephone!” Eurydice’s voice slices through after what feels like only seconds, but the goddess knows it must have been longer because there’s a touch of light in the small pocket of hell they’re in. It filters in from the top of one of the rubble piles, flickering. A lantern. She can hear rocks shifting, moving, and voices beyond though she can’t make out anything they’re saying. Eurydice has a hold of her face.

 

“What?” She mumbles, and Eurydice shakes her roughly.

 

“You have to stay awake. You can be angry for me manhandling you later, just stay  _ awake _ . I don’t want to slap you, but I’ll do it.”

 

“Slap me and I’ll slap back.” Persephone mutters, staving off the call of exhaustion. “Just ask Hades.”

 

Satisfied that Persephone isn’t nodding off again, Eurydice turns back to carefully picking up rocks and shifting them away. Working in tandem with the ones on the other side trying to free them. 

 

“Why did you come in here with me?” Persephone asks suddenly. Eurydice doesn’t pause in her work.

 

“In case something like this happened. I didn’t want to see you hurt.”

 

“Too late.” She chuckles. 

 

“Only because you’re too stubborn.” The girl remarks. Persephone barks a half laugh, half cough. 

 

She feels useless and it doesn’t sit well with her. Grinding her teeth together, Persephone shoves herself to her feet. Her dress sticks to her skin and she can see the golden blood staining both it and her fingers. It’s stopped for now, so she’ll take what small mercies she can get. She isn’t dead; surely she’d feel it otherwise. Huffing a breath, her stiff fingers grab onto a rock and pull it out of the way, working alongside Eurydice. Then another follows. 

 

“You need to rest.” Eurydice tries to protest, and Persephone groans.

 

“First it’s ‘don’t go to sleep’ and now you’re telling me to rest? Make up your mind.” 

 

Eurydice doesn’t say anything to that, clearly just eager to get out of this hellhole as much as Persephone is. Not exactly how she’d planned on her day going. 

 

The rocks shift between them. Eurydice moves faster than Persephone does, who’s vision keeps blurring if she moves too swiftly. It’s going to take her ages to heal, she knows. It’s infuriating. At the least she can keep doing ledgers from her bed, if the solitude doesn’t drive her mad first. But she will survive. She’s survived worse winters in the underworld, and she will survive this. Spring will return to the above ground, and Persephone will heal. To be damned with the Fates - if there wasn’t trouble, they seemed to enjoy creating their own. Witches.

 

The earth trembles beneath her feet and for a moment she thinks the cavern is going to collapse again. She’s not certain she can handle another blow. Eurydice freezes in place - but the rocks seem to be  _ melting _ . They move on their own, liquifying and rejoining the walls, floor, and ceiling of the tunnel to reinforce it. 

 

Eurydice looks at Persephone in silent question, but the goddess merely half collapses in relief. 

 

_ Husband _ .

 

The last of the rubble clears before her eyes; he makes it look easy. Show off. Then Hades is there, stepping through the previously blocked cavern. He’s coated in dust and sporting a sheen of sweat on his brow, eyes as black as coal. He ignores Eurydice entirely in favor of his wife. Persephone manages a half grin as she’s leaned against the wall. 

 

“Took you long enough.” She murmurs. She can feel the tension coiled tightly radiating from him as he reaches up to touch her face, her temple. The gold on his fingers tells her she’s definitely bleeding from there, too. 

 

“You stupid woman.” He grumbles lowly, but she can hear the worry in his tone. The terrifying reality that he feared for her life strikes her. 

 

“Yeah, tell me something else new.” She murmurs. The workers that she’d been trying to save are being helped out of the tunnel now, mostly in one piece. Her gaze falls on Eurydice, hovering with uncertainty at the edge of the crew.  _ I’m fine,  _ she wills her to understand. Wills Hades to understand. But the damn fool seems to have no sense left in him, because in one fell sweep he plucks her from her feet like she weighs nothing more than a feather. 

 

“You sentimental idiot, you’ll break your back.” She half grumbles, half groans. Part of her is thrilled with the idea of not having to attempt to walk. Let alone a straight line. Hades ignores her vague protest and simply draws her closer to his chest. He carries her from the tunnel without a word to anyone else, and Persephone lets him. 

 

She isn’t sure when she falls asleep, but when she opens her eyes again she’s enveloped in the warmth of their bed with a headache the size of Tartarus. The room is dim enough to tell her night has fallen - or what passes for night in the underground. Again it feels as if Hermes has run her down with the train. 

 

“Take it easy.” Her gaze flickers to her husband, lingering in the doorway that leads to the wash room. He’s changed from his dusty suit to something more casual, watching her with those same black eyes as before. He crosses to her before she can speak, reaching out again to touch her temple. 

 

“Still think I’m stupid?” She murmurs. He doesn’t smile.

 

“Very.”

 

Persephone’s lips twitch. 

 

“Well, doc - am I gonna live?”

 

“ _ Persephone _ .” 

 

The way he says her name keeps her from making any snide remark in return. It’s not so much that he says it, but  _ how _ . The sheer fear and relief all at once. She’s known for ages Hades is more than capable of showing emotion. Love. Hate. The usual ones. She’s never seen him afraid, though. Not in the way his voice betrays him. She doesn’t speak as his methodically checks her over even though she knows he’s likely done it half dozen times while she’s been out. 

 

“You could have been killed.” He says in that deep voice of his, satisfied she’s still in one piece even if she feels absolutely shattered otherwise. She can feel bandages and she’s certain she’s drugged on  _ something _ because the pain is duller, but she’s alive and that’s what counts.

 

“I won’t apologise. They needed help. I helped.”

 

“And nearly brought the entire damned tunnel down on your head.”

 

“Well we all can’t melt rocks and minerals, lover.” She scoffs and he flinches. Visibly. Her expression softens. Hades, King of the Underworld, scared of losing his wife. It’s a sobering thought. For all the bonding they’ve managed the past few weeks, it seems to have jumped tenfold. 

 

Silently, she reaches out for his hand. He takes it without hesitation and without question, lifting it to kiss her knuckles.

 

“I’ll be right as rain soon enough. Until then you can cater to me until your heart’s content. Make me do all your boring paperwork that I know you hate.” Her lips twitch into a vague sense of a smile. He is quiet still, then suddenly bends forward to press a kiss to her forehead. His lips linger and when he speaks, she can feel his breath against her face.

 

“I almost lost you.”

 

“Ἀϊδωνεύς, I’m here.” She murmurs, curling her fingers against his chest. Feeling his heartbeat. Steady. Elevated. 

 

“Do not do that to me again.” He half speaks, half  _ begs _ and it sounds the same as many decades ago. How he’d begged for her to be his wife. There’s something slightly different this time though. Something that enforces his tone. Fear or worry, Persephone cannot place it. With what strength she has, she wraps herself around him. Vaguely she wonders if she should tell him about the Fates, but she has no proof they're against her. Whatever she's done to deserve their torment she surely hopes is remedied. She's tired of hearing their damn voices in her head. People will think her gone mad.

 

“We live in a dangerous world, lover.” She says quietly. “I can’t promise it. But I’ll try.”

 

She thinks of Eurydice, and knows somewhere the girl is okay. She can still smell the lingering dust in the air, the  _ earth _ that clings to both her skin and his. But it’s different than being trapped in the mine - this time it makes her feel at home. 

 

_ Home _ .

 

She’s a country girl at heart, in her mind and soul. But the garden isn’t her home. It hasn’t been for years, she thinks. Eons. The underworld is her home. She belongs here, where she once refuted. Beneath the earth is her home. 

 

_ No _ , a voice in her head interrupts as Hades wraps his arms around her with the most gentle of movements. Her eyes close and she rests her head against his chest, listening to that steady, ever present heartbeat and soaking up the warmth that radiates from him. 

 

No, the underworld is not her home. Her home is him. 

 

“I love you.” She whispers, already half asleep again. The world is quiet and she intends to take advantage of it until her head stops throbbing. Whatever she’s drugged with is damned good, though. 

 

“This world is not worth living in without you.” She hears,  _ feels _ his reply. “I love you. Never doubt it.”

 

“I don’t.” Persephone gives a breathy laugh. “I just question how you have a tendency to show it sometimes.”

 

She’s nearly asleep when she feels his lips in her hair.

 

He’d tear apart the universe, if she asked. She knows this. Has always known, but it’s rare she actually believes it. Feels it. It will be a long few days until she’s recovered, but she will endure. Because she has him, and she loathes the see what might happen if he loses her. They have so much time to make up for still, and Persephone doesn’t want robbed of that time. 

 

Doesn’t want robbed of her eternity to him. 

 

As exhaustion begins to claim her again, the Fates are there, whispering in the back of her mind. 

 

_ “Endure. Outlast.” _

 

_ “Better hang on fast.” _

 

_ “Spring is coming and change comes with it.” _

 

_ “The slightest spark.” _

 

_ “The smallest thought.” _

 

_ “Can sometimes thrive, and sometimes fail.” _

**Author's Note:**

> for whatever reason i just wanted an excuse to write hades rescuing persephone. this gave me the excuse, and i also got to write persephone playing mom to eurydice. next up, spring returns to the aboveground.
> 
> i have at least two more installments i know for sure, so hang tight!


End file.
